Poll: Elizabeth Warren is the ‘hottest’

If the 2016 presidential race were a game of “hot or not,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren would be winning with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton close behind, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would be losing ground, according to a new poll.

When Americans were asked to give prominent politicians a score, zero to 100, of how “warm,” or favorable, they feel toward that person, the Massachusetts Democratic senator was the highest-rated of the bunch with a “temperature” of 48.6, according to a Quinnipiac poll out Thursday.

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Clinton was in second place at 47.8, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan followed at 47.4, Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was at 47.1 and Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker rounded out the top five with 46.6.

The Republican governor of New Jersey was in ninth place, at 45.2. That was more than a 10-point drop from the 55.5 he had when he led the poll in January, before news of the George Washington Bridge scandal rocked his office.

Clinton was the most well-known of those in the poll, with only 1 percent of the public saying they didn’t know enough about her to form an opinion.

In last place was former Democratic Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who has floated the idea of a 2016 presidential bid against presumed front-runner Clinton, at 37.5, but more than 80 percent said they didn’t know him.

Warren has said she has no intention of running in 2016, though many in the progressive wing of the party have suggested her as a candidate.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,578 registered voters from March 26-31 for the poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.